Pulitzer Center Update

This Week: Rainforest on Fire

A port in Boca do Acre, Brazil. Image by Mauro Toledo Rodrigues. Brazil, 2019.

A port in Boca do Acre, Brazil. Image by Mauro Toledo Rodrigues. Brazil, 2019.

Bolsonaro's War on the Amazon

Alexander Zaitchik

Emboldened by President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s agribusiness “ruralistas” have begun a massive land grab in the Amazon, burning down swathes of forest for pastures and farmland. Seeing the incursions as an existential threat to their territory and culture, the country’s Indigenous groups are banding together to defend themselves. In a gripping Rainforest Journalism Fund-supported longread for The InterceptAlexander Zaitchik reports from the frontlines of the battle to protect the Amazon.

The Washingtons, Theo, Denise and their son, Teddy at a rally supporting racial equity in Clayton, Mo. Courtesy of the Washington family. United States, 2019.

The Washingtons, Theo, Denise and their son, Teddy at a rally supporting racial equity in Clayton, Mo. Courtesy of the Washington family. United States, 2019.

A St. Louis Family Fights for Social Justice

Richard Weiss

After Washington University freshman Teddy Washington was racially profiled by police, his family demanded accountability and justice from the local government. “If you have been granted the opportunity and have the gift to bring about healing, you must have the courage to do it,” says Denise Washington, Teddy’s mother. Richard Weiss profiles the inspiring Washington family in a Pulitzer Center-supported article for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, tracing a fight for social justice back through the generations.

Statue of Vladimir Lenin in Tiraspol, Transnistria. Image by Shutterstock. Moldova, 2017.

Statue of Vladimir Lenin in Tiraspol, Transnistria. Image by Shutterstock. Moldova, 2017.

Soviet Nostalgia Comes to Transnistria

Hannah Lucinda Smith

Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova, is now a popular destination for Soviet nostalgia, capitalizing on its preserved Soviet-era architecture and iconography. Writing in a Pulitzer Center-supported story for The Times, Hannah Lucinda Smith reports on waves of Western tourists visiting an abandoned Soviet nuclear bunker and local efforts to profit from the interest.